As many others have written the world woke up to the very sad news of the death of Steve Jobs.
Many more eloquent than I have crafted wonderful words that reflect the impact he has had on the lives of almost everybody, not just in making wonderful, beautifully designed devices but by making ones that have created, defined and led their categories.
My own first encounter was by using an early Mac with 8" monochrome screen, and then the early Mac X with the huge 1Gb of RAM and 20Mb hard disk for typesetting and page make up - a big step up from the Amstrad 1512 :) That was in the early days of full page typesetting; I was the only user making me not popular at all with the typesetters at the print company I was working at the time who saw it as either a toy or a threat. Within a year the whole studio was turned over to Macs and pre-press time for platemaking was reduced dramatically.
It is a rare thing when a company creates a brand that generates so much good feeling, admiration and even devotion amongst users and followers. Apple and the Mac have done that and engendered fierce loyalty among users that borders on love. How much of that love was also invested in Jobs as well is difficult to gauge; he was the face of Apple and it was his vision and intuition that drove everything. That was made crystal clear in the episode when he was sacked back in '85.
He leaves a huge legacy in one of the worlds most valuable companies and beautiful products. We can only hope that there will be someone to pick up that baton for the next generation.
The best way of ending is to let the man speak for himself in his brilliant and inspirational speech to students at Stanford in 2005:
Steve Jobs, rest in peace.
...and as he urged the students we should perhaps follow his advice:
stay hungry - stay foolish
